Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley strives to live in the moment and to be the best version of himself. To do so, he incorporates a daily dose of running and yoga or jiu-jitsu before addressing his coaching responsibilities.

Even with the Mavs preparing for their Sept. 29 preseason opener, Mosley plans to step out of American Airlines Center to participate in the Mavs Run This Town 5K, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Victory Plaza.

"I want to do it," said Mosley, 39, who is starting his fifth season here. "It's a fantastic way to get the community involved."

From a fitness standpoint, Mosley said yoga transformed his running and his playing by keeping him flexible.

Jiu-jitsu transformed his conditioning and his coaching by sharpening his mental toughness, teaching him he could always find a way to push himself harder.

Mosley learned to appreciate running as more than conditioning, when his then-girlfriend, now wife, Kristina, converted him from a 3- or 4-mile fitness runner into a half marathoner.

"I got the bug, and I haven't really stopped since," he said.

For Mosley, running reignited the competitor within. He grew up a two-sport athlete, focused primarily on baseball while living in Milwaukee. When his family moved to California, he joined a strong high school basketball program, steeped in legendary UCLA coach John Wooden's ways, with an emphasis on the little details.

Mosley attended a Magic Johnson basketball camp that "changed everything for me," he said, noting Johnson's charisma, enthusiasm for people and the game.

"[Magic] talked about his work ethic, which I knew I had," Mosley said. "I remember the moment when I said: 'I'm going to get into this. I see what it takes.' I was 15 years old."

He played power forward at Colorado, where his coach, Ricardo Patton, a martial artist, taught him life lessons beyond basketball, specifically about being in the moment and about mental toughness, often tested by running lots of sprints.

When Mosley's aspirations to play in the NBA didn't materialize, he played two years in Australia and spent time in Korea, Spain, China and the Philippines. He enjoyed traveling the world until his mom got sick and died in 2004.

At 25, his life was at a crossroads. He was still in playing shape but didn't want to continue playing overseas. He returned to Denver and stayed with former college teammate Ronnie DeGray to figure out his next career move. A month later, John Welch, then a player development coach with the Nuggets, enlisted Mosley's help -- to give players that "in-game feel, those real-life situations," Mosley said. After he spent two years assisting the Nuggets' player development program, the Nuggets hired Mosley, who moved up from player development to scouting and eventually became an assistant coach.

"That's how my coaching career essentially started," he said.

From Denver, he worked for the Cleveland Cavaliers before joining the Mavericks.

With the travel and crazy hours, Mosley has remained committed to his own fitness. He typically gets up by 6:30 a.m., regardless of where he is or what time the team finished playing the night before.

"I get up no matter what and just go," he said. "It's therapeutic. Your mind feels better. Your body feels better. Your head feels clearer ... If my body is tired, then I'll go back to bed. The moment you don't do it, it may not get done."

Just as the runner in Mosley wants to run faster, the coach in him someday wants to be a head coach.

"Things happen when they're supposed to," he said. "What I can do in the moment I am in right now is to be the best assistant coach that I can be, to help this team and this franchise win big."